WEC Signs AMP as Official Energy Drink

With WEC 46 set to air live on Versus Sunday evening, the WEC announced Friday that it has signed AMP Energy Drink as its official energy drink:

WEC® ANNOUNCES AMP ENERGY
AS OFFICIAL ENERGY DRINK

Las Vegas, NV (USA) – World Extreme Cagefighting® announced today that AMP Energy will serve as the organization’s Official Energy Drink for 2010. One of the most prominent energy drinks in the world, AMP Energy will also serve as a key promotional partner for this year’s WEC events.

“We are pleased to have AMP Energy as the Official Energy Drink of WEC,” WEC Vice President Peter Dropick said. “AMP Energy is committed to working with the best athletes and organizations in the sports world and we are excited to have them on board.”

AMP Energy will also sponsor three of WEC’s top stars. Featherweight Urijah Faber, who fights on Jan. 10 at ARCO Arena in Sacramento, Calif, will compete under the AMP Energy banner, as will featherweight prospect Chad Mendes and bantamweight title contender Joseph Benavidez.

“We’re excited to be partnering with WEC as its Official Energy Drink,” Dave Mingey, Vice President, Marketing, AMP Energy, said. “By teaming up with WEC and its talented athletes, we’ve positioned ourselves at the forefront of one of the fastest growing sports in the world.”

For more information on World Extreme Cagefighting, visit www.wec.tv. For more information on AMP Energy, visit www.ampenergy.com.

About World Extreme Cagefighting®
The WEC brand is recognized as one of the premier mixed martial arts organizations in the United States. WEC, founded in 2001, is the sister organization of the Ultimate Fighting Championship® and today features the most prominent light weight fighters in the world. Owned and operated by WEC Holdings LLC., and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., the WEC produces live and taped events annually that are distributed through the Versus network.WEC programming is also available on Fox Sports en Espanol. In addition to its U.S distribution, WEC programming is shown on The Score network in Canada, Setanta Sports in Australia, Globosat in Brazil, and Cadena Tres in Mexico. For more information and current WEC fight news, visit wec.tv. World Extreme Cagefighting® and WEC® are registered trademarks, trademarks, trade dress or service marks owned exclusively by WEC Holdings, LLC in the United States and other jurisdictions and are licensed to WEC Productions, LLC.

About AMP Energy
AMP Energy is a product of Purchase, N.Y.-based Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages (PCNAB). PCNAB is a division of PepsiCo, which offers the world’s largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 18 different product lines that each generate more than $1 billion in annual retail sales. Our main businesses – Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gatorade – also make hundreds of other nourishing, tasty foods and drinks that bring joy to our consumers in over 200 countries. With more than $43 billion in 2008 revenues, PepsiCo employs 198,000 people who are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth, called Performance with Purpose. By dedicating ourselves to offering a broad array of choices for healthy, convenient and fun nourishment, reducing our environmental impact, and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace culture, PepsiCo balances strong financial returns with giving back to our communities worldwide. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.

Payout Perspective:

There are two interesting take aways, here:

1.) AMP is not a sponsor of the UFC, which is a positive sign for the WEC in the sense that it has been able to attract its own sponsors independent of its larger sister organization. In the end, the money all goes to the same place, but it’s also important from a brand differentiation standpoint that the WEC find its own path. It’s going to be harder to differentiate now that the UFC is also on Versus.

2.) AMP is also sponsoring a few WEC fighters, which demonstrates the company’s commitment to the sport.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by MMAPayoutdotcom: The #WEC has announced AMP as its new “Official Energy Drink” http://tinyurl.com/yfk6cb5 @reedharriswec…

Brain Smasher on
January 8th, 2010 8:55 PM

Wonder if this means we may see a different Pepsi Co product in the UFC? This deal here shows there is an openness towards MMA and a working relationship between the company and Zuffa. Maybe Mountain Dew with their Extreme Sports campaign working with X games etc. The UFC fits right into that and is a much higher profile product than WEC just as Amp is the WEC of the Pepsi company. If not then its good for the WEC like the article says. WEC is standing on their own.